The new system differs in two important respects from the old. In the first place, the rates are graded according to age, and secondly, the new system provides that a member may retire five years after entrance, or thereafter at any successive period of five years up to seventy, and that his premiums shall be fixed according to the time of retirement and the period of his expectancy. The disability certificates provide for an indemnity of eight dollars per week for loss of time resulting from disability caused by accident or sickness, a maximum of twenty weeks' disability during any one year.[58] However, should a member, after entrance into the association, become disabled permanently by "tuberculosis, paralysis, locomotor ataxia, dropsy, cancer, diabetes, sciatica, chronic rheumatism, chronic kidney or mental disease, or any other chronic disease," not especially named in the constitution, that may, in the judgment of the board of directors, cause permanent drain upon the funds of the Association, the said member shall receive the disability allowance for twenty weeks, after which all payments shall cease and his certificate shall be cancelled.[59] The disability insurance is thus really sick insurance. [Footnote 58: The Postal Record, Vol. 17, p. 6.] [Footnote 59: Constitution 1905, Art. 12, in The Postal Record, Vol. 19, pp. 2-6.] To aid members who are too old to take advantage of the plan offered for securing annuities by their own financial efforts, the Association, in convention at Portland, September, 1905, endorsed an "extended leave of absence retirement plan."[60] The Post Office Department of the United States was requested to grant an extended leave of absence to "superannuated or permanently impaired" carriers on condition that they accept 40 per cent. of their regular salary, while retired, and that they pay the remaining 60 per cent. to the senior substitute in their office. Under the conditions of this plan, the applicant for retirement must submit himself to the board of examiners, who shall, after a physical examination by the physician of the board, determine his eligibility. The results of this plan would be two-fold: first, to relieve the detrimental effect of superannuation upon the efficiency of the service, and, secondly, to remove the fear of those who look for more drastic measures of relief. Aside from a regular pension grant by the Government this plan is considered the most efficient method of securing adequate protection for the superannuated who are too old to avail themselves of the opportunities offered under the system of annuities.[61] [Footnote 60: The Postal Record, Vol. 18, pp. 220-222.] [Footnote 61: The Postal Record, Vol. 19, p. 6.]